The Irish Council Against Blood Sports is appealing to Loreto College secondary school in Mullingar, not to associate with a Westmeath Foxhounds fundraiser planned for March 14th. The hunt which is involved in terrorising and cruelly killing foxes is organising a charity ride and have nominated the school as the beneficiary.

At the November 2014 meeting of the Loreto College Parents Advisory Council, it was stated "Westmeath Hunt has allocated its annual charity ride to Loreto College this year and it is hoped to raise substantial funds to refurbish the library in the spring. A venue, sponsors and volunteers will be needed to ensure the success of this major event."

ICABS has written to the Principal, Marese Bell, appealing to her not to allow the school to be associated with the Westmeath Foxhounds. In our letter to Ms. Bell, we outlined the horrendous cruelty engaged in by the hunt, twice a week, when they take a pack of hounds out into the Westmeath countryside to hound and kill foxes for “sport”.

In our letter, we outlined instances of cruelty perpetrated by this hunt club, which had been documented in hunt reports in the Farmers Journal and the Irish Field. For example, a 2011 report in the Farmers Journal revealed that sixteen mounted followers of the Westmeath hunt, along with 29 hounds, found a fox that was caught and “chopped”. Later on, another fox was “overhauled before he managed to put any distance between himself and them”. Both “chopped” and “overhauled” in hunting terminology mean that the fox was caught by the pack of hounds, torn apart and disembowelled.

In 2007, the Irish Independent reported that there was a probe into allegations that during a Westmeath Foxhounds hunt, a rope was tied to the leg of a fox and that it was pulled out of a burrow and fed alive to the dogs. In 2008, an Irish Field report revealed that the Westmeath Hunt chased a fox into the freezing water of the Royal Canal. And in another report in the Irish Field in 1991, it was reported that a fox was dug out by Westmeath Foxhounds as follows: “Terriers were some time coming as car followers were the wrong side of the wind for hearing. A quick dig followed and two foxes were dispatched. Eamon had a brush for Clarissa and a fox’s tongue which he intends pickling in vinegar to cure warts and draw thorns.”

Hopefully, Loreto College Mullingar, will show compassion for Irish wildlife and reject this cruel hunt’s fundraiser.